AP Budget session cost Rs. 8,500 per minute!

The just-concluded budget sessions of the Assembly and the Legislative Council could well be assessed as the costliest in the recent years when reckoned by the business transacted. The Legislature Secretariat officials, who provided information about the number of hours the two Houses functioned just for the asking, were unwilling to part with details of expenditure. Scribes however secured these details too. On being coaxed the officer said the Assembly/Council session cost the ex-chequer Rs. 8,500 per minute. When similarly cajoled, an AP Central Power Distribution Company Limited engineer revealed that the consumption of electricity by the Assembly and Legislative Council during session was 2,000 units per day. Both officials grumbled that members of the Assembly walked away with freebies gifted by different Government Departments as if acknowledging the legislative service they had done.

Of Bills and allowances

Finance Minister Anam Ramanarayan Reddy was upset over the disruption to the proceedings in the Assembly.

Mr. Ramanarayan Reddy, who tried to pacify the slogan shouting members of the TRS and the YSR Congress the other day, lamented that the session convened for passage of important Bills could not debate the issue.

“This is legislative Assembly and we are supposed to enact laws governing the State from here. But, the way the members are disrupting the House is sending wrong signals outside ,” he said.

Language barrier

If Char Dham yatra pilgrims from Andhra Pradesh escaped death by whisker following heavy rains and landslides in Uttarakhand in the last one week, they faced another challenge that of language barrier.

According to some pilgrims, while the Hindi-speaking pilgrims from North India were able to communicate easily with the Indian Army personnel, those from Andhra Pradesh found it hard to speak to them.

A classic example was how seven pilgrims, who were airlifted from flood-ravaged areas of Uttarakhand and brought to Gauchar helipad had a tough time communicating with the Army personnel. A Telugu TV channel reporter, who was present there, came to their rescue explaining to the authorities the names and addresses of the victims.

Governor goes down the memory lane

Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan on Sunday recalled at a function his brush with former Director General of Police S. Ananda Ram as an Assistant Superintendent of Police under training at Nandyal while the latter was the Deputy Inspector General of Kurnool range. Mr. Ananda Ram was also present on the dais.

To investigate a crime, Mr. Narasimhan said he had visited a village and returned to Nandyal the same evening. He sent his diary with the noting on the tour to the Superintendent of Police who forwarded it to Mr. Ananda Ram.

Mr. Ram wrote back seeking an explanation why Mr. Narasimhan did not stay back in the village that night.

The diary kept doing the rounds between the ASP, SP and DIG with mere notings between them and no answer really to why the night halt did not take place.

Finally, the senior officers left the matter recalling a saying that there was no way a horse could be made to drink water even after taking it to the water hole.